I have an idea for a website offering a great service for companies. I am not sure whether this service will be free, or something like the first 100 registrations are free. But what I want to do is the following: - I want to search the internet for emailadresses of companies (mostly small companies) - I want to use sites like the yellowpages for obtaining more emailadresses. - With all this contact information (approximately 15.000 contacts), I want to put a mailing list together and send them an email about my new website and interesting (free) service. Can somebody tell me if the above three points contains some kind of an illegal action. I want to do it the right way, but also the smartest and fastest way By the way, is point 3 not some kind of spamming... and if so, what can be the possible consequences of doing this? Kind regards, Erik B.
It defintely is not legal. I don't think you can put compile email addresses without the consent of the owner of the email address. The yellow pages does this by having people opt-in to their service and have their information displayed.
Okay, I understand... but actually nowbody knows that I've got this information from the yellowpages, I could have found it while just surfing the internet. Ps. What could be the consequences of doing this?
The issue is not where you get the information from, whether you get it from YellowPages.com or the companies own website, either way you are getting the companies information and disributing it without their explicit permission. Sending out their email address probably falls under "spamming" laws in some form or fasion so check those out. You may want to check out the legal forums on this board for more information or people who can help you out more with this topic. Sorry I can't be of more help to you. Legal forums: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44
Yes, this would be considered spam, and I definitely would not recommend doing this, if you are in the US. The anti-SPAM laws there are just ridicoulously harsh.
No, I'm from Belgium... but I was afraid that this would be considered ad spam. But I don't see any other option for reaching my target group. I can't believe that you can reach all those companies just by advertising... furthermore that would be very expensive. If I look to other sites that offer similar services, then I can't believe that they didn't use email advertising. What could be the consequences of using email advertising to approximitely 15.000 companies. Possible a bad name and be put on some kind of a black list, or is it possible that I will get a fine or something like that?
you can't doing like that..........you just collect emailadresses by surfing. Not use yellopages..........
Getting a lawsuit or some other legal action against you is a real possibility. You say "I don't see any other option for reaching my target group" but I haven't heard about your marketing plan. In it you should have a market research section that includes surveys and statistics about your target group. Those surveys are created and administered by you, for the specific purpose of supporting your overall business plan and sales forecast. Why not, for example, use the following resources for Belgium or something similar? On-Demand Email Marketing Software hxxp://www.emailvision.com/email-marketing/email-campaign-presentation/2/1/ Optizen's Messagent Interactive Campaign Management Suite hxxp://www.optizen.be/services.asp CITOBI - We design your Interactive Marketing Campaigns hxxp://www.citobi.eu/documents/products-services/interactive-marketing.xml?lang=en Even if you decide to use another company or method, it would probably help to get a trial run and see what the possibilities are for you.
You're right... these things need to be in a businessplan. But for the moment I'm still in a brainstorming phase... I am looking at various possibilities. Besides that... maybe it sounds very cheap, but I want to build this website as an experiment in other words, in the beginning I want to keep the costs as low as possible. So I wanted to do the marketing by myself.
It is not illegal if you do it the right way. Your e-mail has to be personalized otherwise it would be considered as spam. So, what you have to do is, just send them an email saying "we are doing a research in you business sector and would be very pleased if you can complete our survey." Through the survey try to point out your service. And in the email's footer describe your service/company. And don't forget to add that they are not on a mailing list and won't get any further e-mails. Personalization is the key!
just force them to offer their email address, great idea! and pls do it then tell us whether you get the related lawsuit